Shenendehowa Central School District Board of Education President Bill Casey, left, shakes hands with Clifton Park town Supervisor Philip Barrett after the votes were tallied at a public referendum on selling 34 surplus acres of district land to the town.
Glenn Griffith -- ggriffith@digitalfirstmedia.com

CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. >> Residents of the Shenendehowa School District Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the sale of a surplus 34-acre parcel to the town of Clifton Park for $1.1 million by a vote of 2,723 to 535.

The vote ends a sometimes contentious year-long effort by many in the Shen community who fought to keep the parcel in the public domain and have made it into a passive park. The parcel is north of Shatekon Elementary School and between Moe Road and Maxwell Drive.

Voters who braved the rain also approved the school district request to borrow $22 million to improve facilities in the next 10 years. The vote on that proposition was 2,238 in favor and 973 opposed. The balloting took place in the Gowana Middle School gym.

The large vote plurality in favor of both propositions was not missed by Shen Board of Education president Bill Casey.

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“I’m very surprised in a positive way,” he said. “I thought our threshold was the April vote when so many people showed up and it was a 70 (percent) to 30 (percent) split. This is an 84 (percent) to 16 (percent) split. That’s beyond the pale. This was a good turnout, it’s more like what we see for the budget.”

Casey said he was ready to make the sale.

Clifton Park Supervisor Philip Barrett was also in the gym for the vote tallies and he too noted that the public had now voted twice to keep the land in the public domain.

“We’ll begin the process of the land purchase with the school district in the near future,” he said. “We didn’t want to look too far into the future of the park until tonight’s vote was completed. This makes two votes where the people of the community have spoken loud and clear as to the 37 acres. As an elected official I don’t think it’s smart to ignore a referendum.”

In discussing the town’s offer of $1.1 million for the land Barrett said its original per acre offer had never varied.

“That’s why we felt we were always in the ballpark with the price all along,” he said. “I understand why the school district took the action it did but we always said we weren’t going to compete with large developers.”

Barrett said once the sale is finalized the town will initiate a comprehensive public planning process following the same template it’s used with other long-range planning studies that were completed in recent years. He expects that process to start in the first quarter of 2018.

Shen Superintendent L. Oliver Robinson thanked the community for supporting the district and those who advocated for the sale of the land and the district’s construction project.

“I think the votes and their margins reflect that the community believes in what we’re trying to do as a school district,” he said. “The sale of the land put to rest what grew into a controversy in the community itself. However, while it was a controversy, it wasn’t controversial and I think that the vote reflects that.”

It was one year ago that the Shen Board of Education voted 4-3 to accept an offer of $2 million from developer BBL for the land. That action drew an immediate response from a small group of open space advocates in Clifton Park who gained enough support within the community to force a public referendum that overwhelmingly rejected the board’s vote in April.

The vice president of that group, Susan Burton, was another who was in the gym when the vote tallies were announced Tuesday. After hearing the results she commented that “the people have spoken again”.

In a prepared statement the group, Friends of Clifton Park Open Space, said it was pleased the district’s voters had accepted to sell the land to the town and congratulated the town and the school board on their agreement to work together “to ensure the best future use of the property for everyone”.

“We thank the voters of the district for this outcome,” the statement read. “We compliment their foresight to see beyond today.”

Vote tallies do not demonstrate the reasoning behind the votes. Those became clear in interviews with voters after they had cast their ballots.

“I approve of the land sale,” said Clifton Park resident Ken Hannan. “It’s good to keep it in the public domain. Free space is good. Clifton Park is beginning to look like New Jersey where I grew up. I’m in favor of slowing down development.”

Hannan approved of borrowing $22 million also saying spending the money was necessary to keep Shen in the best condition possible for the kids who are here and to attract new families.

Anton Salecker, another town resident opposed the land sale.

“It’s not a good deal for taxpayers,” he said. “The town could have afforded to pay a fair price without any negative impact. Now the taxpayers will have to make up the $1 million.”